The Lost Heir Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

  An island in the Pacific. The sun was shining down from a cloudless sky,the sea was breaking on the white beach, there was just sufficientbreeze to move the leaves of the cocoanut trees that formed a dark bandbehind the sands. A small brig of about a hundred tons' burden layanchored a short distance from the shore. The paint was off in manyplaces, and everywhere blistered by the sun. Her sails hung loosely inthe gaskets, and the slackness of her ropes and her general air ofuntidiness alike showed the absence of any sort of discipline on board.

  In front of a rough shanty, built just within the line of shade of thecocoanuts, sat three men. Two drunken sailors lay asleep some fiftyyards away. On the stump of a tree in front of the bench on which thethree men were sitting were placed several black bottles and three tinpannikins, while two gourds filled with water and covered with broadbanana leaves stood erect in holes dug in the sand.

  "I tell you what it is, Atkins, your men are carrying it on too far.Bill here, and I, were good friends with the natives; the chief gave uswives, and we got on well enough with them. What with the cocoanuts,which are free to us all, and the patches of ground to cultivate, we hadall we wanted, and with the store of beads and bright cotton we broughthere with us we paid the natives to fish for pearls for us, and havecollected enough copra to trade for rum and whatever else we want. Youhave got all our copra on board, and a good stock of native trumperies,and I should recommend you to be off, both for your own sake and ours.Your men have been more or less drunk ever since they came here. I don'tmind a drinking bout myself now and again, but it does not do to keepit up. However, it would be no odds to us whether your men were drunkall the time or not if they would but get drunk on board, but they willbring the liquor on shore, and then they get quarrelsome, use theirfists on the natives, and meddle with the women. Now, these fellows arequiet and gentle enough if they are left alone and treated fairly, but Idon't blame them for getting riled up when they are ill-treated, and Itell you they are riled up pretty badly now. My woman has spoken to memore than once, and from what she says there is likely to be trouble,not only for you but for us."

  "Well, Sim," the man that he was addressing said, "there is reasonenough in what you say. I don't care myself a snap for these blackfellows; a couple of musket-shots would send them all flying. But, yousee, though I am skipper, the men all have shares and do pretty much asthey like. At present they like to stay here, and I suppose they willstay here till they are tired of it."

  "Well, Atkins, if I were in your place I should very soon make a change,and if you like, Bill and I will help you. You have got six men; well,if you shot three of them the other three would think better of it; andif they didn't I would settle them too."

  "It is all very well talking like that, Sim. How could I sail the brigwithout hands? If I only kept three of them I should be veryshort-handed, and if I ever did manage to get to port they would lay acomplaint against me for shooting the others. It is all very well foryou to talk; you have lived here long enough to know that one can onlyget the very worst class of fellows to sail with one in craft like thisand for this sort of trade. It pays well if one gets back safely, butwhat with the risk of being cast ashore or being killed by the natives,who are savage enough in some of the islands, it stands to reason that aman who can get a berth in any other sort of craft won't sail with us.But it is just the sort of life to suit chaps like these; it means easywork, plenty of loafing about, and if things turn out well a good lumpof money at the end of the voyage. However, they ought to have hadenough of it this job; the rum is nearly gone, and if you will come offto-morrow I will let you have what remains, though if they are sober Idoubt if they will let you take it away."

  "We will risk that," the third man said. "We are not nice about usingour pistols, if you are. I was saying to Simcoe here, things are going alot too far. Enough mischief has been done already, and I am by no meanssure that when you have gone they won't make it hot for us. We are verycomfortable here, and we are not doing badly, and I don't care aboutbeing turned out of it."

  "The pearl fishing is turning out well?" Atkins asked quietly.

  "It might be worse and it might be better. Anyhow, we are content toremain here for a bit.

  "I don't like it, Jack," he said, as the skipper, having in vain triedto rouse the two drunken men, rowed himself off to the brig. "My womantold me this morning that there had been a big talk among the natives,and that though they did not tell her anything, she thought that theyhad made up their minds to wipe the whites out altogether. They saidthat if we hadn't been here, the brig would not have come; which is likeenough, for Atkins only put in because he was an old chum of ours, andthought that we should have got copra enough to make it worth his whileto come round. Well, if the niggers only wiped out the crew, and burnedthe ship, I should say nothing against it, as long as they let Atkinsalone. He has stood by me in more than one rough-and-tumble business,and I am bound to stand by him. But there aint no discrimination amongthe niggers. Besides, I am not saying but that he has been pretty roughwith them himself.

  "It makes all the difference whether you settle down and go in formaking a pile, or if you only stop to water and take in fruit; we agreedas to that when we landed here. When we stopped here before and foundthem friendly and pleasant, and we says to each other, 'If we can butget on smooth with them and set them fishing for us we might make a goodthing out of it.' You see, we had bought some oysters one of thembrought up after a dive, and had found two or three pearls in them.

  "Well, we have been here nine months, and I don't say I am not gettingtired of it; but it is worth stopping for. You know we reckoned lastweek that the pearls we have got ought to be worth two or three thousandpounds, and we agreed that we would stay here till we have two bags thesize of the one we have got; but unless Atkins gets those fellows off, Idoubt if we shan't have to go before that. There is no reasoning withthese niggers; if they had any sense they would see that we can't helpthese things."

  "Perhaps what the women tell us is untrue," the other suggested.

  "Don't you think that," Simcoe said; "these black women are always trueto their white men when they are decently treated. Besides, none of thenatives have been near us to-day. That, of course, might be because theyare afraid of these chaps; but from this shanty we can see the canoes,and not one has gone out to-day. Who is to blame them, when one of theirchiefs was shot yesterday without a shadow of excuse? I don't say that Ithink so much of a nigger's life one way or another; and having been insome stiff fights together, as you know, I have always taken my share.But I am dead against shooting without some reason; it spoils trade, andmakes it unsafe even to land for water. I have half a mind, Bill, to goon board and ask Atkins to take us away with him; we could mighty soonsettle matters with the crew, and if there was a fight and we had toshoot them all, we could take the brig into port well enough."

  "No, no," said Bill, "it has not come to that yet. Don't let us give upa good thing until we are sure that the game is up."

  "Well, just as you like; I am ready to run the risk if you are. It wouldbe hard, if the worst came to the worst, if we couldn't fight our waydown to our canoe, and once on board that we could laugh at them; foras we have proved over and over again, they have not one that can touchher."

  "Well, I will be off to my hut; the sun is just setting and my supperwill be ready for me." He strolled off to his shanty, which lay backsome distance in the wood. Simcoe entered the hut, where a native womanwas cooking.

  "Nothing fresh, I suppose?" he asked in her language.

  She shook her head. "None of our people have been near us to-day."

  "Well, Polly,"--for so her white master had christened her, her nativeappellation being too long for ordinary conversation,--"it is a badbusiness, and I am sorry for it; but when these fellows have sailed awayit will soon come all right again."

  "Polly hopes so," she said. "Polly very much afraid."

  "Well, you ha
d better go to-morrow and see them, and tell them, as Ihave told them already, we are very sorry for the goings on of thesepeople, but it is not our fault. You have no fear that they will hurtyou, have you? Because if so, don't you go."

  "They no hurt Polly now," she said; "they know that if I do not comeback you be on guard."

  "Well, I don't think there is any danger at present, but it is as wellto be ready. Do you take down to the canoe three or four dozen cocoanutsand four or five big bunches of plantains, and you may as well takethree or four gourds of water. If we have to take to the boat, will yougo with me or stay here?"

  "Polly will go with her master," the woman said; "if she stay here theywill kill her."

  "I am glad enough for you to go with me, Polly," he said. "You have beena good little woman, and I don't know how I should get on without younow; though why they should kill you I don't know, seeing that your headchief gave you to me himself."

  "Kill everything belonging to white man," she said quietly; and the manknew in his heart that it would probably be so. She put his supper onthe table and then made several journeys backwards and forwards to thecanoe, which lay afloat in a little cove a couple of hundred yards away.When she had done she stood at the table and ate the remains of thesupper.

  An hour later the man was sitting on the bench outside smoking his pipe,when he heard the sound of heavy footsteps among the trees. He knew thiswas no native tread.

  "What is it, Bill?" he asked, as the man came up.

  "Well, I came to tell you that there is a big row going on among thenatives. I can hear their tom-tom things beating furiously, andoccasionally they set up a tremendous yell. I tell you I don't like it,Simcoe; I don't like it a bit. I sent my woman to see what it was allabout, but though she had been away three hours, she hadn't come backwhen I started out to talk it over with you."

  "There has been a biggish row going on on board the brig too," the othersaid. "I have heard Atkins storming, and a good deal of shouting amongthe men. I suppose you have got your pearls all right in your belt?Things begin to have an awkward look, and we may have to bolt at shortnotice."

  "You trust me for that, Simcoe; I have had them on me ever since thebrig came in. I had no fear of the natives stealing them out of my hut,but if one of those fellows were to drop in and see them he would thinknothing of knifing the woman and carrying them off."

  "I see you have brought your gun with you."

  "Yes, and my pistols too. I suppose you are loaded, and ready to catchup at a moment's notice?"

  "Yes; my girl has been carrying down cocoanuts and plantains to thecanoe, so, if we have to make a bolt, we can hold on comfortably enoughuntil we get to the next island, which is not above three days' sail,and lies dead to leeward, as the wind is at present. Still, Bill, I hopeit is not coming to that. I think it is likely enough they may attackthe brig in their canoes, but they have always been so friendly with usthat I really don't think they can turn against us now; they must knowthat we cannot help these people's doings."

  "That is all very well," the other said, "but you and I know half adozen cases in which the niggers have attacked a ship, and in every casebeachcombers were killed too."

  Simcoe made no answer; he knew that it was so, and could hardly hopethat there would be an exception in their case. After thinking for aminute he said, "Well, Bill, in that case I think the safest plan willbe to take to the canoe at once. We can stay away a few weeks and thencome back here and see how matters stand."

  "But how about Atkins?"

  "Well, we will shout and get him ashore and tell him what we think ofit, and give him the choice of either stopping or going with us. Nothingcan be fairer than that. If he chooses to stop and harm comes of it wecannot blame ourselves. If we come back in a few weeks of course weshould not land until we had overhauled one of their canoes and foundout what the feeling of the people was. They will have got over theirfit of rage, and like enough they will have said to each other, 'We werebetter off when the two white men were here. They paid us for ourfishing and our copra, and never did us any harm. I wish they were backagain.'"

  "That is reasonable enough," the other agreed. "What about the tradethings?"

  "Well, we have only got some beads and small knick-knacks left. Pollyshall carry them down to the canoe; we shall want them for trading tillwe come back here again."

  He said a few words to the woman, who at once began to carry the thingsdown to the canoe. Then he went down to the beach and shouted, "Atkins!"

  "Hullo!" came back from the brig.

  "Come ashore; we want to talk to you about something particular." Theysaw the dinghy pulled up to the ship's side, then Atkins rowed ashore.

  "I have been having a row with the crew," he said. "I thought it wascoming to fighting. Two or three of them took up handspikes, but I drewmy pistols and things calmed down. What do you want me for?"

  "Bill here has brought news that there is a row among the natives. Theyare beating their drums and yelling like fiends, and we expect it meansmischief. At any rate it comes to this: we are so convinced that thereis going to be trouble that we mean to cut and run at once. We have gotenough grub put on board our canoe to take us to the next island, but wedid not want to leave you in the lurch, to be speared by the niggers, sowe have called you to offer you a seat in the canoe."

  "That is friendly," Atkins said, "but I should lose the ship and cargo;and pretty near all that I have got is in her. Why should not you twobring your canoe off alongside and hoist her up? Then we could get upanchor and be off. Three of the fellows are dead-drunk and the otherthree half stupid. I would give you each a share in the profits of thevoyage."

  "Well, what do you think of that, Simcoe?" Bill said.

  "I tell you straight I don't care for it. You and I are both goodpaddlers, and the canoe sails like a witch in a light wind. Once afloatin her and we are safe, but you can't say as much for the brig. I havesailed in her before now, and I know that she is slow, unless it isblowing half a gale. It is like enough that the natives may be watchingher now, and if they saw us get under way they would be after her, andwould go six feet to her one. As to fighting, what could we three do?The others would be of no use whatever. No, I like our plan best byfar."

  "Well, I don't know what to say," Atkins said. "It is hard to make achoice. Of course if I were sure that the natives really meant mischiefI would go with you, but we cannot be sure of that."

  "I feel pretty sure of it anyhow," Bill said. "My girl would be safe tofollow me here when she got back and found the hut empty, but I ammightily afraid that some harm has come to her, or she would have beenback long before this. It wasn't half a mile to go, and she might havebeen there and back in half an hour, and she has been gone now overthree hours, and I feel nasty about it, I can tell you. I wish your crewwere all sober, Atkins, and that we had a score of men that I could putmy hand on among the islands. I should not be talking about taking to acanoe then, but I would just go in and give it them so hot that theywould never try their pranks on again."

  "Have you got all the things in, Polly?" Simcoe asked the woman, as shecrouched down by the door of the hut.

  "Got all in," she said. "Why not go? Very bad wait here."

  "Well, I think you are about right. At any rate, we will go and get onboard and wait a spear's-throw off the shore for an hour or so. IfBill's Susan comes here and finds we have gone she is pretty safe toguess that we shall be on board the canoe and waiting for her. What doyou say to that, Bill?"

  "That suits me; nothing can be fairer. If she comes we can take her onboard, if she doesn't I shall know that they have killed her, and I willjot it down against them and come back here some day before long andtake it out of them. And you, Atkins?"

  "I will go straight on board. Like enough it is all a false alarm, and Iaint going to lose the brig and all that she has got on board till I amdownright certain that they----"

  He stopped suddenly, and the others leaped to their feet as a burst ofsavage yells br
oke out across the water.

  "By Heavens, they are attacking the ship!" Simcoe cried; "they will behere in a moment. Come on, Polly! come on, Atkins! we have no choicenow." Taking up his arms, he started to run. "Quick, quick!" he cried;"I can hear them."

  They had gone but some thirty yards when a number of natives burst fromthe wood. Had they arrived a minute sooner at the hut none of itsoccupants would have lived to tell the tale, but the impatience of thosein the canoes lying round the brig had caused the alarm to be givenbefore they had placed themselves in readiness for a simultaneous rushon the hut. There was no further occasion for silence; a wild yell burstout as they caught sight of the flying figures, and a dozen spears flewthrough the air.

  "Don't stop to fire!" Simcoe shouted; "we shall have to make a stand atthe boat and shall want every barrel."

  They were three-quarters of the way to the boat and the natives werestill some twenty yards behind them. Suddenly Bill stumbled; then with asavage oath he turned and emptied both barrels of his fowling-piece intothe natives, and the two leading men fell forward on their faces, andsome shouts and yells told that some of the shots had taken effect onthose behind.

  "Are you wounded, Bill?" Simcoe asked.

  "Yes, I am hit hard. Run on, man; I think I am done for."

  "Nonsense!" Simcoe exclaimed. "Catch hold of my arm; I will help youalong."

  One native was in advance of the rest. He raised his arm to hurl hisspear, but the native woman, who had all along been running behindSimcoe, threw herself forward, and the spear pierced her through thebody. With an exclamation of fury Simcoe leveled his musket and shot thenative through the head.

  "Throw your arms round my neck, Bill; the poor girl is done for, cursethem. Can you hold on?"

  "Yes, I think so," he replied.

  Simcoe was a very powerful man, and with his comrade on his back he ranon almost as swiftly as before.

  "Now, Atkins, give them every barrel that you have got, then lift Billinto the boat, and I will keep them back. I am not going until I havepaid some of them out for poor Polly."

  Atkins fired his pistols, and with so steady an aim that each shotbrought down a savage; then he lifted Bill from Simcoe's shoulders andlaid him in the canoe.

  "Get up the sail!" Simcoe shouted. "They will riddle us with spears ifwe paddle." He shot down four of the natives with his double-barreledpistols, and then clubbing his gun threw himself with a hoarse shoutupon them. The loss of seven of their leaders had caused their followersto hesitate, and the fury of Simcoe's attack and the tremendous blows hedealt completed their discomfiture, and they turned and fled in dismay.

  "Now is your time!" Atkins shouted; "I have cut the cord and got thesail up." Turning, Simcoe was in a moment knee-deep in the water;pushing the boat off, he threw himself into it.

  "Lie down, man, lie down!" he shouted to Atkins. But the warning was toolate; the moment Simcoe turned the natives had turned also, and as theyreached the water's edge half a dozen spears were flung. Two of themstruck Atkins full in the body, and with a cry he threw up his arms andfell over the side of the canoe. Then came several splashes in thewater. Simcoe drew the pistols from his companion's belt, and, raisinghimself high enough to look over the stern, shot two of the savages whowere wading out waist deep, and were but a few paces behind.

  The sail was now doing its work, and the boat was beginning to glidethrough the water at a rate that even the best swimmers could not hopeto emulate. As soon as he was out of reach of the spears Simcoe threwthe boat up into the wind, reloaded his pistols and those of hiscomrade, and opened fire upon the group of natives clustered at thewater's edge. Like most men of his class, he was a first-rate shot.Three of the natives fell and the rest fled. Then with a stroke of thepaddle he put the boat before the wind again, and soon left the islandfar behind.

  "This has been a pretty night's work," he muttered. "Poor little Pollykilled! She gave her life to save me, and there is no doubt she did saveme too, for that fellow's spear must have gone right through me. I amafraid that they have done for Bill too." He stooped over his comrade.The shaft of the spear had broken off, but the jagged piece with thehead attached stuck out just over the hip. "I am afraid it is all upwith him; however, I must take it out and bandage him as well as Ican."

  A groan burst from the wounded man as Simcoe with some effort drew thejagged spear from the wound. Then he took off his own shirt and toresome strips off it and tightly bandaged the wound.

  "I can do nothing else until the morning," he said. "Well, Polly, I havepaid them out for you. I have shot seven or eight and smashed the skullsof as many more. Of course they have done for those drunkards on boardthe brig. I did not hear a single pistol fired, and I expect that theyknocked them on the head in their drunken sleep. The brutes! if they hadhad their senses about them we might have made a fair fight; though Iexpect that they would have been too many for us."

  Just as daylight was breaking Bill opened his eyes.

  "How do you feel, old man?"

  "I am going, Simcoe. You stood by me like a man; I heard it all tillAtkins laid me in the boat. Where is he?"

  "He is gone, Bill. Instead of throwing himself down in the boat, as Ishouted to him directly he got up the sail, he stood there watching, Isuppose, until I was in. He got two spears in his body and felloverboard dead, I have no doubt."

  "Look here, Sim!" The latter had to bend down his ear to listen. Thewords came faintly and slowly. "If you ever go back home again, you lookup my brother. He is no more on the square than I was, but he is aclever fellow. He lives respectable--Rose Cottage, Pentonville Hill.Don't forget it. He goes by the name of Harrison. I wrote to him everytwo or three years, and got an answer about the same. Tell him how hisbrother Bill died, and how you carried him off when the blacks wereyelling round. We were fond of each other, Tom and I. You keep thepearls, Sim; he don't want them. He is a top-sawyer in his way, he is,and has offered again and again that if I would come home he would setme up in any line I liked. I thought perhaps I should go home some day.Tom and I were great friends. I remember----" His eyelids drooped, hislips moved, and in another minute no sounds came from them. He gave onedeep sigh, and then all was over.

  "A good partner and a good chum," Simcoe muttered as he looked down intothe man's face. "Well, well, I have lost a good many chums in the lastten years, but not one I missed as I shall miss Bill. It is hard, he andPolly going at the same time. There are not many fellows that I wouldhave lain down to sleep with, with fifteen hundred pounds' or so worthof pearls in my belt, not out in these islands. But I never had any fearwith him. Well, well," he went on, as he took the bag of pearls from hiscomrade's belt and placed it in his own, "There is a consolationeverywhere, though we might have doubled and trebled this lot if we hadstopped three months longer, which we should have done if Atkins had notbrought that brig of his in. I can't think why he did it. He might havebeen sure that with that drunken lot of villains trouble would come ofit sooner or later. He wasn't a bad fellow either, but too fond ofliquor."